


Echoes

by slyodalucifer



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action, Aliens, F/F, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, might add smut later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:42:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20973497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slyodalucifer/pseuds/slyodalucifer
Summary: This was a story that I wanted to write, between two of the characters that I created during my xcom2 play through.





	Echoes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LostEchoes](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=LostEchoes).

Chapter 1: Reckless.

Isabel stepped out of the Skyranger with an extremely annoyed expression, boots thumping harder than usual on the metal floors of the Avenger. Gauss rifle slung over her shoulder with blood dripping down the length of her right arm. Walking past the rest of the squad that had been on mission with her, hearing the snickering that came from them. It was undoubtedly intentional, there was laughter about her injury on the ride home as well. The sniper paused for a second ready to give them a piece of her mind, but decided against it at the last second. That is, until a certain somebody decided to open their mouth. 

That certain somebody was a cocky son of a bitch named, Claude, he was a ranger. Loved to talk about himself and never, NEVER stopped bragging about things. How many reps he could do in the Rec, the amount of kills he had, the stupid tats he occasionally got. Some of the engineers found his gloating to be rather captivating and had developed a crush on the man. Funny, because none of the combat staff ever took interest, they all knew he was full of shit. 

The real top dog was Isabel, the sniper that had nearly triple the kills as the American ranger. Could do double the number of reps he could, and got tattoos with out taking the time out of her day to gloat about them. 

All the more reason for Claude to open his big fat mouth and say something stupid. 

“Hey, Scarface, how’s the arm? I imagine pretty shit after that clumsy move, dumbass.” Claude laughed, all too amused with himself. The marksmen didn’t stop in her tracks because he insulted her injured arm. No, she stopped because of the name he used.

If there was one way to piss the Scottish woman off, it was by using that name. Scarface, on account of the diagonal scars that ran across her face, semi healed to save the girl some looks, but not enough to keep on the down low. They were evenly spaced across her skin, with highest starting where temple met for head and going down diagonally. In addition to the scar, Isabel lost an eye in the same incident. 

That incident was a harrowing encounter with a Chryssalid during the initial invasion, she was only fifteen at the time. Narrowly escaping being either eaten alive or used as a host for the creature’s reproductive cycle. Thanks to a band of local militia and police that killed the monster in the nick of time, saving her from a fatal blow. 

“What th' fuck did ye just say tae me?” Isabel replied, leaning in pretending she hadn’t heard what the cocky man said. Her Scottish accent wasn’t too thick, but it was still clear as day. 

“I said~” Claude tried to restate himself but was caught with a solid left hook. Knocking him off the crate that he had been casually sitting on and onto the floor. Isabel then crouched at his side and looked him over. Nothing had changed, he was still the same weak idiot she’d beaten countless times before. 

“Ah heard what ye said, ye fuckin' prick! I’m not deaf, cunt.” Isabel growled, pleased with look of anger on the American’s face. 

To stop the man from getting any bright ideas, the marksman stood up straight and then reared her foot back and flung a kick into the man’s chest. Claude wasn’t someone she fought fair with, the girl would be as petty as she wanted. After knocking the wind out of him she squatted back down. 

“E'en with a fucked up arm, Ah can still kick yer ass. Any day ay th' week, ye doaty fucking cunt.” She chuckled, taking the time to get in a extra good laugh or two. One she felt her business was done she stood up and turned. 

Still bleeding a from a slash in her upper arm, the armor covering the limb was pretty much toast, charred and ripped apart from a plasma grenade. It did it’s job though, none of her skin had been burned by the plasma. The only injury was a tiny piece of shrapnel imbedded in her skin, the source of the slash and the bleeding. 

The white haired sniper casually walked down the corridors of the avenger, brushing past a couple of the engineering staff leaving little red droplets. Some were worried about the large quantity of crimson red that covered her arm. Others just ignored it and went about their business, knowing the Scottish woman to not be to chatty when she got hurt. 

“D-Don’t you think you should get that checked out...” Suggested one of the more nervous engineers. 

“Ah didn’t ask fur yer opinion, did Ah?” Isabel asked, staring the grease monkey dead in the eye. Not all too keen on hearing about going to the med bay. 

“Uhh, n-no?” She replied squeamishly, afraid she might get hurt by Isabel. Despite the well known fact that, the sniper rarely hit or touched woman in any way. 

“Alright 'en, keep yer gob shut.” Isabel threatened, then proceeded on to her room. 

It wasn’t really her room, it was more her girlfriends room. Janet, or Echo as everyone called her, having her own room after receiving her promotion to Colonel. The Raven haired soldier was skilled, not in the same way as her Scottish lover, a more passive skillset. Good with her hands, tentative to every detail of a person, unable to find peace if her hands hands weren’t the one patching wounds in the field. That was part of the reason that Isabel decided to skip the med-bay, not to mention if she went, Echo would just undo the work by med-bay nurses and redo it herself. 

In a slight haze, with the amount of blood loss finally having the effects it was expected to, Isabel put in the code on the door’s keypad. Apparently getting a portion of the code wrong, as the machine angrily beeped at her. Which only agitated the sniper’s current state, she tried again but this time with a little more force to her button pushing. This time door opened, and she stepped in, dripping blood onto the metal floor of the medic’s room. 

Echo, having heard the door swish open, turned around from her busy work filling out mission reports and medical documents about wounded soldiers. Dropping her clipboard in shock at the sight before her.

“Darling? What the hell happened?” Echo gasped, rushing to the dizzy trooper’s aid. 

Helping Isabel situate herself on the bed without falling over, reaching under the bed to grab a medical kit that she kept there just as a precaution. Setting the kit down on the bed she popped the latches, before turning to examine the wound on her lover’s arm. Digging her finger into the cut slightly she could see the shrapnel wasn’t embedded too deep, it was just deep enough that it could be pulled out with little issue. There was blood on all over the sniper’s arm, the medic wondered why Isabel hadn’t just gone to the medbay first. 

“Hey, Isabel sweetie, I’m gonna have to pull this out okay?” The medic tried to warn, getting a secure grip on the shard of metal. Counting to three in her head the medic then slowly pulled the piece out of the scott’s arm, causing more blood to trickle out of the wound, accompanied by a yelp from the sniper. 

“Ahh! whit th' fuck are ye doin'?” Isabel yelled, the feeling of pain brought the trooper back into her usual aware self. 

“Fixing your broke ass, what does it look like!” Echo bit back, taking hold of the sniper’s arm and getting the last portion of the shrapnel out.

Then the medic reached into the medical kit and pulled out a disinfectant pad, and began wiping the blood off to clean the wound. With the wound clean to the best of her ability Echo attached a string of military grade thread to a needle. With the thread attached she then pinched a portion of the sniper’s arm and pushed it through the skin. The feeling of a sharp object separating skin made Isabel jerk slightly with an angry look on her face. 

“Whit th' hell Echo?” Isabel gasped, to which she received a smack across the back of her head for messing up the medic’s work. 

“I swear to god, if you don’t sit still Isabel!” Echo threatened, her patience was wearing thin as the last thing she wanted to do today was patch a wound. 

The angry tone of the medic’s voice subdued the scott’s actions, long enough for Echo to pull the thread in and out repeatedly, closing the wound. With an annoyed sigh Echo let go of the sniper’s arm and began packing up her kit. Isabel just sat there, eyes focused on the floor, too full of shame to look up at the medic. With the kit packed, Echo slid it back under the bed before standing up and running her hands through her hair in frustration. Thinking of what she should do next, a long sigh left her throat before she decided to speak. 

“Babe?” Echo called, the angry tone that been present before now gone, exchanged for a lighter and more caring one. 

No response, Isabel was nothing if not stubborn. One would think a sniper to be calm and reasonable, but that wasn’t the case, not with this one. The Scott was stubborn, brash, and prideful, never one to follow order to a T, always coming up with her own plans of action. They were often times reckless and dangerous, but somehow, the sniper always managed to walk away unscathed. Whether it was pure luck or amazing skill, nobody really knew. 

“Sweetheart?” Echo tried again, this time squatting down in an attempt to get in the sniper’s line of sight. But again, she received no response. Sighing in defeat, the woman brushed the sniper’s hair back and kissed her on the forehead. 

“Why don’t you get some rest and I’ll be back in a little bit, okay?” Echo suggested, before standing and walking to the door, turning the lights off before she left the room. 

There was someone she needed to talk to, the Commander, knowing it would be next to impossible to figure out what happened from Isabel. The commander would be the only one that would actually debrief the medic on the mission. The medic made her way to the elevator, brushing past other crew members on her way, stepping inside she pressed the key for the command deck. The door closed, allowing her some time to think, closing her eyes tight she then rubbed the bridge of her nose supping one arm with other under it. 

The elevator slowed and the the doors opened, Echo didn’t really care too much to see what was happening so she kept her eyes closed. The sound of boots, heavy ones, thudding on the ground gave her a small clue as to who it could be. Raven, or Fate as everyone called her, she was a skirmisher. An ex-member of the Advent military, who defected two years after her enlistment, realizing that sacrificing her humanity hadn’t been worth wiping away the debt of her troubled and rough past. The woman rarely took her helmet or armor off, on account of her face being disfigured, and only Echo knew the soldier well enough to see what was underneath. 

“Janet.” Raven addressed, using the medic’s formal name. The helmet giving her voice a synthesized sound, not distorted, just filtered. 

“Raven.” Echo replied in kind, the two were on a first name basis. 

Before reaching the rank of sergeant the medic had spent time in one of the skirmisher camps, as the skirmishers were a sub faction of the resistance and held their own operations. Most of the other factions didn’t associate with the skirmishers they instead excluded them and spread lies about the organization to make supporters fear them, mostly because the other faction didn’t trust them. As Echo spent time in the camp, she came to disregard the other factions’ concerns and beliefs, the skirmishers were nothing like how the reapers depicted them. They were genuine in their desire to destroy Advent and be free from their enslavement. 

Raven, was one of the skirmishers that convinced Echo of this. Upon arriving, Raven escorted the medic to her quarters, which just so happened to be Raven’s as well. Over time the two grew on each other, though they kept one another at elbow length. With the tipping point being the night that Raven found herself too restless to sleep and snuck out of camp. Echo followed, but was clumsy in her pursuit and Raven discovered her shadow. It was then that Raven told the medic about her past, which surprised Echo, most Ex-Advent couldn’t even remember their old names much less their past. 

“On your way to see the Commander, I presume?” Raven asked, keeping her vision straight in front of her, arms together behind her back in a military type stance. 

“Yep.” The medic replied casually, finally opening her eyes, blinking a couple times to get them into focus.

“She’s reckless.” The skirmisher commented, referring to Isabel and her injury. Echo let out a long sigh, Raven wasn’t in any way wrong. 

“I know, Raven...” Echo acknowledged as she looked to the elevator read out on the wall. Two more floors. 

“She could get herself killed.” The Soldier went on, shifting her stance to look at the medic, who stood about five inches shorter than her. 

“I know....” Echo replied quietly, not particularly fond of thinking about Isabel, the girl she loved, dying due to her own carefree behavior. 

“Do you?” Raven challenged. The medic didn’t respond, she was too taken back the skirmisher’s doubt.

“I’m only making sure. I don’t want to be the one to say ‘I told you so’ if something happens.” Raven touched the smaller woman on the shoulder and gently squeezed. They were closer than most could even guess, so who could blame her. 

“I’ll keep an eye on her.” Echo finally said after staring down at the floor of the elevator. 

“I know you will. Just make sure you’re prepared for the unexpected.” Raven suggested, Echo nodded and then the door to the elevator opened. Revealing the commander’s office which also doubled as a situation room from which he would provide orders to ground troops. 

Echo stepped in trailed slowly by her friend, evident by the sound of heavy armor plated boots hitting the ground. 

“I assume you are here for the same reason I am?” Raven asked, walking just barely behind the medic. 

“Debrief?” Echo answered, to which the skirmisher confirmed with a nod. Stepping up to the office door, Echo wrapped her hand around the handle and opened it, then motioned for Raven to take the lead. 

The two stopped in front of the Commander’s desk, side by side, both with their arms behind their backs clasped together. The Commander was eyeing several data pads, hands acting as supports as he leaned over the desk to look down at them. After a minute or two the Commander shifts his attention to the two senior officers in the room, pushing off his desk. 

“Colonel, Major.” He addressed, causing them to salute, which he returned. “At ease.” 

With the signal given to relax the two made themselves more comfortable. Raven chose to step back toward a more dark corner of the room, where the red light integrated into her armor shown more prominently as she leaned against the wall. She was never one to enjoy the spotlight, it made her altered height and physique stand out more. 

Echo chose to sit down in front of the Commanders desk, moving the chair slightly so she wouldn’t have turn her whole body in order to talk to the skirmisher. The medic sat with her right leg resting on the knee of other by the ankle. 

“Condition?” The Commander began, looking directly at the medic. 

“Isabel?” Echo clarified, the Commander nodded and so she continued. “She’s fine, her pride was hurt a little. But apart from that, she’ll need a couple day’s under my care, application of the right healing agent. Should be back in the field within a few weeks.” 

“Good, can’t have our best sniper be down and out for too long.” The Commander commented reassured by the prognosis from the best medic the resistance had to offer. Turning his attention to the red figure in the corner of the room he asked, “Status?” 

“Minimal damage and data loss. Easy recovery, technicians are working on decryption as we speak.” Raven answered, providing the summary of the mission with her filtered voice. 

“Excellent.” Remarked the Commander, but that was all that he said. 

Eventually the room became eerily quiet, they all knew what the problem was. The rather large elephant in the room, the one that could’ve easily caused the failure of their recent mission. They were all just too hesitant to break the silence. 

“She’s reckless.” Raven finally said, breaking the silence by repeating her statement from before. 

“As much as I wish it wasn’t true, it is. She is reckless.” The Commander concurred, turning back to look at Echo. Obviously, expecting her to have something to say on behalf of her significant other. 

“What?! I can’t temper her rash decisions if I’m not there.” Echo said defensively, annoyed that both the commander and her best friend were expecting her to magically fix the issue. “Before both of you come at me, can I actually get an explanation as to what happened?”

“Very well, Major?.” The Commander obliged, but deferring to the only officer on the field during the mission. 

“We were out gunned, a member of the squad had managed to grab the intel we needed, but dropped it in his retreat.” Raven began.

“It was in between us and Advent, couldn’t risk sending someone out for retrieval,  
too dangerous. Likely to die. I had instructed Isabel to keep her high ground position, keep us covered. Though it seems in her vocabulary, ‘stay put’ and ‘go get yourself killed’ mean the same~” 

“Without the insults please, Raven.” Echo interrupted, fingers tapping on the chair in clear annoyance. 

“~Right. In short, she disobeyed my orders and tried to retrieve the intel. Unfortunately a trooper caught her off guard with a plasma grenade, knocking her out and giving her the wounds you tended to.” Raven finished and the Commander shifted his vision back to the medic as if their point had been proven. 

Much to Echo’s dismay, it had been, and because of it she stayed silent. There was nothing that could be said to not make this Isabel’s fault. With a long sigh the medic put her hand up to her face and growled, wondering why Isabel was so careless sometimes. 

“Fine!” Echo finally blurted out, after several minutes of silence. “What do you suggest?” 

“You said that you can’t temper her unless you’re on mission, no?” The Commander asked, to which the Colonel nodded. “Then I think we have our answer.”

“Babysitting?” Echo said. 

“If you so chose to call it that.” Raven said. 

“Fucking....fantastic.” Echo muttered under her breath. 

“Look at it this way you’ll be able heal her before it even happens.” The Commander joked, laughing at his own joke. He was the only one that laughed. Raven wasn’t one to joke, unless it was in private with people she trusted, and Echo...well she didn’t find the joke all too amusing. 

“Errr...sorry...anyways I have things to attend to, you two are dismissed.” 

With the meeting concluded Raven emerged from the dark and opened the door, motioning for Echo to exit. With a small amount of anger Echo stood up and gave the chair a small kick before storming out of the room, making her way straight to the elevator and punching the button to her floor. Before Raven could even get on, the door closed in her face causing the skirmisher to let out an exasperated sigh. Taking the stairs in heavy armor wasn’t exactly fun. 

Stepping into her room with an rather angry growl, Echo made her way towards the center of the room. Babysitting? Seriously? She couldn’t believe what they were suggesting, but one good look at the woman in her bed, with bandaging wrapped around her wound, reminded her who it was she was complaining about. Echo would do anything to keep Isabel alive and safe, so if this was the only option then she’d have to accept it. The sound of a whimper broke the medic from her thoughts. 

She knew that sound all too well. 

It was from Isabel, her nightmares, from what happened to her as a child. They terrified her, to the point where she rarely talked about them. The first time they shared a bed Echo found out the hard way, being woken by a screaming girl wasn’t the least heart attack inducing thing ever. It was that night that Echo learned of the woman’s only fear. Those things, chrysalids as the scientists called them. They terrified the Scott. 

Echo crawled into the bed, laid down next to her lover, and wrapped her arms around the sniper. Gently the medic rubbed up and down Isabel’s back while applying kisses to the top of her head. The whimpers grew louder but then died down as the source realized there was something to ground her. 

“What am I going to do with you?” Echo whispered into her lover’s hair. 

~end~


End file.
